Guided Selling  — An Overview 

Scenario

How guided selling works in Zoho CRM

How to create a guided selling flow 

Some features are being released in phases and will be accessible only to specific users.

Step 1: Enter basic details 

1. Go to Setup > CPQ > Guided Selling. 
   
2. Click Create Guided Selling.
   
3. In the Create Guided Selling pop-up, do the following:
   
   
1. Provide the name for the guided selling.
2. Choose the module from the list of inventory and custom modules (that has a subform with a lookup field).
   
   
3. Select the layout.
4. Choose the subform.
5. Select the particular lookup field from the subform, for which you want the guided selling.
   
   If the subform has a single lookup field, it will be selected by default.
6. Add the optional description for the guided selling.
4. Click Next. 

Step 2: Configure deciding factors

2. Question title: Name of the deciding factor.
3. Ex: Budget
4. Question: Enter the question.
5. Ex: What is the customer's budget range for the watch?
6. Input options: Specify the field that represents this deciding factor in Zoho CRM. 
7. Ex: The Budget range field in the Products Modul
   

You can now build a series of deciding factors or "Questions" which will collectively form your guided selling flow. 

Step 3: Preview and Save

How to navigate a guided selling flow 

1. Create/Edit a Quote item. 
   
2. Scroll down to the Line items section.
   
3. Below the Add row button, you will find the available Guided Selling flows for the Quotes module/layout. 
   
   
   Note: 
   If guided selling flows are available for multiple lookup fields in the same subform, the guided selling for the first lookup field will be listed in the dropdown Add via Guided Selling below the subform, as well as the guided selling icon beside the lookup field. Guided selling for the other lookup fields can be accessed from the icon available beside the particular lookup field.
   
   
   
   
4. Select the suitable flow and start answering the questions prompted based on your customers' preferences. 
   As you keep answering the guided selling questions, the pop-up will show the products that are found based on the answers. It will keep sorting the records based on the answers.
5. Once you complete answering the series of questions, you will be presented with the filtered results.
   From the results pop-up, you can take the following actions:
1. Edit inputs: Go back to the questions and modify your answers. The results will be regenerated based on the updated inputs.
   
2. Start Over: Clear all answers and restart the Guided Selling flow from the first question.
   You can also click the Info icon to view a summary of the criteria based on which the results have been filtered.
   To customize which columns appear in the results, click Manage Columns. Any column changes you make here will be reflected in the record selection pop-up and the multi-select record pop-up as well, all three views stay in sync.
6. From a huge list of products, you have now successfully waded through the myriad options and arrived at the most suitable solutions based on a list of customer's preferences. Select the most applicable product and add the item to the quote. 
   
7. Repeat the guided selling flow if needed for subsequent line items and save the quote.
   

Selecting multiple products in Guided Selling

When navigating a Guided Selling flow, you can select multiple products from the results and add them to the subform in one go. This is particularly useful when a customer's preferences match several products and you want to add all of them to the quote without repeating the guided selling flow for each line item.

Multi-select in Guided Selling is available when the subform's lookup field has the Allow bulk addition setting enabled (under Add multiple rows simultaneously in the subform's properties). If bulk addition is not enabled, the Guided Selling results will support single record selection only.

When can you select multiple options in Guided Selling?

Multi-select availability depends on whether the subform's lookup field has Allow bulk addition enabled. This works the same way for system-defined subforms (such as Quoted Items in Quotes) and custom subforms. It is not turned on by default in either case, and must be enabled manually in the module layout.

1. When Add Multiple Rows is enabled and Guided Selling is configured for that lookup field: the Add via Guided Selling button inside the bulk addition screen supports multi-select in the results. That lookup field is treated as the primary lookup.
2. When Add Multiple Rows is not enabled: the Add via Guided Selling button supports single record selection only. The first lookup field in the subform is treated as the primary lookup.
   

Selecting records in multi-select mode

When multi-select is available, the Guided Selling result pop-up allows you to select more than one product from the filtered results.

If you have already selected records from the subform's bulk addition pop-up before launching Guided Selling, the selected count carries over. For example, if 5 products were already selected via the bulk addition pop-up and you then open Guided Selling to add more, the result pop-up will display "5 products selected" by default. As you select additional products in the Guided Selling results, the count will reflect the total across both—the records from the bulk addition pop-up and the records from the Guided Selling results.

You can click the Info icon next to the selected count to view a breakdown of the selections. If you click Edit inputs to revise your answers, your current selections are preserved while the results are regenerated.

Note:

1. Clicking Clear in the Guided Selling multi-select result pop-up will also clear any records that were selected in the bulk addition pop-up. Both selections are treated as a single set.
   

Usage of Input Options in Guided Selling 

1. Color of the watch
   
2. Budget
   
3. Gender
   
4. Warranty period
   
5. Waterproof or not, and so on.
   

Therefore the takeaway is that you have two levels of search/filters achievable in Guided Selling:

— Primary search (using fields of the primary Products module)

— Secondary search (using fields of related modules) 

1. Related modules — Deals, Contacts and Accounts are defined in this context as Related modules, as these modules are by default linked with the Products module. You can choose any one of these modules in your Guided Selling flow as the related module. 
   
2. Lookup module — This is by default, the Vendors module. 

Guided Selling Combination allowed:

 1 Primary module  + 1 Related Module  + 1 Lookup Module 

 (Products, by default) + (Accounts/Contacts/Deals) + (Vendors). 

Note: Defining Related Modules in Input Options

Note that the "related" modules offered in the Input Options module dropdown could of two types:

1. Lookup module
   
2. Related List module

a. Lookup Modules: These are related modules that are associated to the primary module via a lookup field. 

Example, Products and Vendors are default CRM modules, in which Vendor is a "lookup" module linked to the Products module via the field "Vendor Name". 

b. Related List module: Related lists are sections from related modules that are presented contextually, on the record detail page of a primary module record. 

Example, the detail page of a Product record contains some default "related lists" such as Contacts, Accounts, Deals, Leads, Cases and so on. 

In the context of the Guided Selling Input Options, both of these types, that is, modules associated to the primary module (Products) via both a lookup field as well as related lists are referred to as "Related modules". 

Limitations

Having understood the definition of related modules in the context of Guided Selling  as noted above) , please observe the limitations of these input options as elaborated below. 

1. CPQ allows only a total of 3 modules (1 primary module and 2 related modules) from which you can choose fields for filters. 

1. Products — Primary module
   
2. Accounts — Related module (related list)
   
3. Vendors — Related module (default lookup module)
   

2. When you use fields of related modules for filtering Products, you are essentially using lookup filters. Whether it is the related list based module, or lookup module, the moment you use the field of a related module, that particular Guided Selling flow now contains lookup filters. 
Example: you are filtering products by the parameter of a related module — Vendor Name contains <Value>. Based on this criteria, CPQ will "filter" records from a primary module (Products) based on a field from the related module (Vendors). So this is essentially a lookup filter functioning inside a Guided Selling flow. Therefore Guided selling flows are impacted by limits of lookup filters allowed for a Zoho CRM account. 

3. The limits of lookup filters are as follows:

You can have only a total of 6 lookup filters for the Products module, and this limit is inclusive of custom lookup filters as well as the related module fields inside the Guided Selling Input Options. 

4. By default the association of Accounts and Vendors to the Products module will exhaust some filters in the allowed limit. So over and beyond this, if you already have custom lookup filters for the Quotes module, you may exceed the number of lookup filters allowed, and as a result you will get the following error, when you attempt to access Guided selling flows. 

5. To resolve this error, you need to choose between the Guided Selling flow and custom lookup filters and prioritise between the two— you cannot have them both in cases of limits exceeding. If you decide that the Guided Selling flow is priority, you need to go and delete the excess lookup filters from Modules and Fields > Quotes > Product subform > Product Name. In the Lookup field settings, delete the lookup filters that you do not need in this list and try the GS flow again. 

Points to remember 

1. Guided Selling is available in the Zoho CRM Professional Edition and above. 
   
2. The Guided Selling flows are layout-specific. If you wish to use different flows for a layout, simply create all your flows for that layout and choose the required flow from the Guided Selling dropdown list as you create a Quote.
   
   
3. You can easily reorder Questions in the Guided Selling flow. 
   
4. Simply hover over the Question to also view a nutshell of the answers entered, for easy reference. 
   
5. The maximum number of Questions that can be added in a Guided selling flow is 10, regardless of editions.
   
6. The maximum number of Input Options applicable is 18, across 10 question pages, regardless of editions.
7. The maximum number of Guided Selling flows that can be added in a CRM account depends on the edition you are on. Visit the Feature Availability information to learn more about the same. 
   
8. Guided Selling can also be accessed from the detail view page of a record. When editing a subform from the detail view, the Add via Guided Selling option is available for single record selection.